Searching for Robert Johnson: The Life and Legend of the "King of the Delta Blues Singers"
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Book Overview
Music critic, author, and screenwriter Peter Guarlnick illuminates the life and legend of blues guitarist Robert Johnson in this extended essay. He was probably the most influential of all bluesman. And yet Robert Johnson remained virtually unknown to a wider audience until the release of his complete recordings in 1990, fifty-two years after his death. Unquestionably the main influence on Muddy Waters and an entire generation of rock 'n' roll and blues musicians including Eric Clapton and the Rolling Stones, Johnson is known for the ferocity and originality of his work, and for the tormented sensibility that lay behind it. Poisoned by a jealous husband at the age of twenty-seven, widely believed to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his musical gifts, Robert Johnson has long enjoyed a myth that has at times overshadowed his music. This brilliant ode to the "King of the Delta Blues" evokes the place and time that gave birth to the man and the myth and gracefully mirrors the world and artistry of Robert Johnson himself. "I finished the book feeling that, if only for a brief moment, Robert Johnson had stepped out of the mists."--New York Times Book Review
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0452279496
ISBN13:9780452279490
Release Date:August 1998
Publisher:Penguin Publishing Group
Length:96 Pages
Weight:0.28 lbs.
Dimensions:0.5" x 5.3" x 7.7"
Age Range:18 years and up
Grade Range:Grade 12 and higher
Customer Reviews
2 ratings
worth reading
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
Excellent book. Interesting prospective not only of Robert Johnson, but of his contemporaries.
Vivid description of the blues great
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 25 years ago
The 96 pages of this book are pack full of information about legendary bluesman Robert Johnson. Virtually everything that is known about Mr. Johnson is vividly detailed in this work. Makes for excellent reading.
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